Lost without you
by Elaine Lategan
Summary: After the loss of her father, Katara goes back to the Southern Water Tribe. There the Gang reunites and try to uncover what the story behing this new clan is. Both Sokka and Katara deal with their massive heartbreak and Katara has a new love interest.
1. Gone.

Her whole world colapsed with just one phone call. She started sobbing when the line went dead. Sitting on the pavement, just outside the local food market, with her face in her hands, with people just walking by. How could they just keep going about their daily routine when she just recieved the worst news of her live?

 _I better call Sokka_. She thought.

 _And tell him what? That I know how he feels? Because I don't. Of course this is ripping my insides apart, he was my father too, but we never shared that special bond like they did. It's probably understandable. Sokka is the first born son. They bothed liked the same things. Fighting is something that they really did have in common. They would spend hours together working on battle tactics, even though the war was over and there was almost no need for fighting. Sometimes I think they just did it to spend time together._

 _Sokka must be broken._

 _I can't believe he's dead!_

 _First my mother and now my father._

Her mind started wizzing. It was her grandmother who called to deliver the bad news.

Her father has died just a few hours ago from an attack on their home town. Being the hero that he was, he thoughtlessly charged at the leader of the clan. One of the soldiers who was trying to protect his king, stabbed him right there on the spot while everybody watched. After that the leader said that this was a warning to anybody who would stand in their way, and then they left. Just like that.

Everybody ran to their fearless leader and tried to help ,but it was too late. He had already died of too much blood loss.

 _If I had been there I could have healed him! If I had just been there!_

Katara blamed herself for leaving, but knew that she couldn't do anything about it now.


	2. Dreams and nightmares

The truth suddenly started to sink in. Katara was on her way back home, where she would find her family one member less.

 _Reality is merciless._

She had minimum sleep the previous night. Not only because she was on a small ship that struggled to keep head above water with the growing waves, which made her feel extremely clausterphobic. But because she had this recurring nightmare where she was the one who killed her father. She was the one who was responsible for him falling to the ground, screaming in agony, blood seeping through his clothes. Sokka running up to her, tears coming down his face, screaming,

" I hate you. How could you do this to your own father. Why Katara? Why? "

 _Guilty conscience._ She thought.

 _Dreams are formed of what you really think and feel. You know that it's all your fault._

She managed to silence her mind, but couldn't fall back asleep. So she spent the rest of the night working on the syllabus for when she returns back to the school. That's _if_ she returns. She doesn't know whether she will be able to leave her family again. Maybe she'll stay with her grandmother this time. Make sure that if there is a recurrence of recent events, she'll be close and can start helping immediately. Protect the only parent that she has left.

 _Stupid. That's what I was. It was a stupid decision to leave. And to what? To fulfill my dreams of becoming a waterbending master, only to teach children who weren't lucky enough to live near a great mass water ,but had the talent? More like little brats who rely more on something that they were born with, and of course their parent's wallets, than hard work._

To pour her heart into her job only to have it thrown back in her face, surely wasn't what she had hoped for when she decided to join the waterbending school in Ba Sing Se.

 _I wonder whether any of the other members of the Gang regret their life choices? Does Sokka regret following Aang? Does he also blame himself for leaving Dad?_

A few years ago when Aang defeated The Fire Lord and peace was brought back to the nations, everyone more or less went their separate ways.

 _Maybe this will be the oppertunity to get them together._


	3. The reunion

_Only two hours left of this awful journey._

It's already been three weeks since she boarded the ship. With the nights getting longer and longer, Katara started to feel a little excited to be sleeping in her own bed again.

 _I just hope that the nightmares will stop._

She called Sokka the night before. He sounded like his whole life was falling apart ,which in all fairness, it probably was.

He's also on his way back ,but he wont arrive for another three days. When she asked him whether Suki was coming with him, he just wispered an 'no' with a long silence that followed. With absolutely no explanation. It was rather odd behavior for him. He usually loves to talk about the 'love of his life'. She wanted to know what was going on but didn't push it any further.

An alarm went off that indicated that the passengers could leave the ship. She gathered all her stuff and ,within the next few minutes, she was walking down

the dock. People were hugging and kissing. Overjoyed to be back with their loved ones.

She didn't arrange for anyone to meet her there and felt kind of dissapointed that she couldn't rest for a second just to feel the joy of her loved ones welcoming her back like everyone around her now. She knew that if she decided to come back a week ago that her father would be first in line to give her a huge hug.

"Katara!

"Hey, Katara!"

She looked around when she thought that someone screamed her name.

"Hey, Sugar Queen!"

And that's when she saw them. Zuko, Aang and Toph were all there, waiting for her on the fluffy monster that is Appa. How could she miss Appa? He's huge and certainly doesn't blend in with the crowd.

Tears started streaming down her face and the next thing she knew was that she was running. Running to the warm imbrace of a group hug.


	4. Mourning

"We have gathered here today, to not only say our final goodbyes ,but to celebrate our leader, co-worker, father, son and most important of all, our friend."

It was a dreadful Monday morning. Katara, Sokka, Aang, Zuko and Toph were all sitting in the front row of their local church. Attending the funural of the beloved Hakoda. The hall was full of people mourning. People were sobbing. The heartache was clear in the air.

After the burial, everybody stayed at the church for coffee and snacks ,but nobody was in the mood for a tea party. It wasn't long before everybody went home.

Back at the hotel that the Gang was staying in, Katara and Toph were in their room catching up.

Toph couldn't stop talking about how great her life is. She barely let Katara get a word in the conversation. That suited Katara just fine.

Everybody arrived just before the funeral and there wasn't much time to talk about where everybody went after the war. She doesn't want people to know how unhappy she is or pushing her about what she'll do in the future.

 _What if I say something wrong. If I make a promise I can't keep. I don't want them pitying me._

It wasn't long before Toph dozed off ,but Katara was still wide awake. Too scared of the nightmares to sleep ,she decided to go to the pub and grill on the bottom floor of the hotel.

 _Maybe if I have a few drinks in, I'll be able to sleep better._

She put on a pair of jeans, a plain T-shirt and sneakers. She put her hair in a ponytail and headed downstairs.

When she arrived, the place was full. She started to worry that she wouldn't find a table ,but then she saw Aang, Sokka and Zuko sitting at a table in the far back corner. They waved her over and although she wasn't in the mood for company, she didn't want to seem rude so she decided to join them.

The guys already had a few shots in and were goofing off playing games. The mood was light and enjoyable. She wanted to cherish the moment forever.

An hour later Aang decided that it was time for bed and Sokka went with him. Leaving only Katara and Zuko behind. With neither one of them being very chatty, she didn't know what to do. So she decided to order another drink and another and another.


	5. Revealing secrets

Katara woke up with a splitting headache. Dazed and confused about where she was.

"Good morning, I thought that you would never wake up!" A cheery voice echoed.

Fully conscience now, she turned her head to the kitchen to see Zuko, grinning.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"You mean you don't remember?"

Katara suddenly realized that she couldn't remember anything from last night.

"No" it came out as a wisper, the embarrasment clear.

"Well, after your very exciting night out, I decided that you shouldn't be left alone. So, I walked you home. Just to find out that you lost your keys. Figuring that Toph wouldn't want to be woken up and neither Sokka nor Aang would want you crashing in one of their beds. I brought you here to my apartment. Since there's only one bedroom, you crashed on the very cumfy couch." His voice was as smug as ever on that last sentence.

"I'm sorry"

"Don't be, you made last night a very interesting evening." ;)

She felt her face heating up, her cheeks were a cherry red colour over how much she was blushing.

"What did I do?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Was it that bad?"

"Well, you were a total rockstar at the pub. Dancing on the tables, singing your heart out, you even had quite a fanclub. But that wasn't even the worst part."

 _Can't the earth just swallow me whole right now?_

Despite the look on her face, he just went on, unfazed.

"No, when we came here... you starting telling me your whole life story. Well, at least everything that happened after the war ended. You deciding to not follow Aang, career wise nor relationship wise. And then going through everything just to regret that decision."

"I'm sorry that I put you through that."

"Like I said, don't be. Except that one time you tried to suduce me, it wasn't that bad."

Now Katara really felt her face lighting up, but Zuko just shrugged it off.

"Omg, what am I going to tell the others?!" the realisation dawned on her.

"Nothing, I already told them that you lost your keys last night, so you crashed here and woke up with a cold. Then I volunteerd to look after you while they go out for the day."

Katara looked at him, flabbergasted. She didn't expect him to be so kind to her after last night.

He must have seen the look in her eyes because he quickly added,

"Now we can spend the whole day together while I grill you about yesterday, I mean I'm usually the akward one, so this will be fun. And after that it will be forgotten, as if it never happened."

She looked at him grateful.

"Thank you, you are a really great friend."

 _ **A/N:**_

Wow, who thought that I would come this far? I'm thinking that there will be three more chapters. And since this is my first story on FanFic, I would love it if you could RR.

 **Remember:** **I do not own ATLA.**


	6. The carnival

"Come on, you're taking forever!" Zuko's voice came bouldering up the stairs.

After contemplating over what to do for half an hour, they decided to first go to Katara's apartment, that was left unlocked by Toph.

Katara was getting ready so that they could go to the park where a carnival was being held. Strangely enough, it was Zuko who suggested it. She was surprised at first because he didn't look like he was the kind of person to enjoy such things or even look around for them. But she just figured that it was something that he learned to like while going out with Mai.

 _I wonder if their still together?_

She dismissed the thought at first, saying that it was none of her business, because it wasn't. But even now she couldn't stop wondering...

"I'm coming!" Still putting on one of her shoes, Katara came down the stairs wearing a beautiful light-blue lace dress with long sleeves that flowed to right above her knee. Her hair was loose with a tiny side braid that kept her hair out of her face. She had just the right amount of make-up on to look radiant but still natural.

Zuko who was wearing a plain white, long-sleeve shirt and normal jeans, looked at her in awe for just a second before he could composed himself again.

"Better grab a coat, it can get very chilly here." Katara said. She was trying to brake the silence, not that it was awkward but she didn't feel exactly comfortable with Zuko just staring at her.

 _Why do I suddenly feel so nervous? And did I see Zuko flinch?_

Walking faster than she needed to, she went to the coat hanger and grabbed both of their jackets. She slightly blushed when she had to give him his and their hands touched. She didn't know what it was she was feeling, she just assumed that she felt exposed now that he knew all of her secrets.

Despite the uncomfortableness earlier that morning, they had had the best time at the carnival. Zuko wasn't used to the games or entertainment that they had here so Katara got to show him the ropes. At first she would win the game and he would justify himself by saying that that's not how you do it, but once he learned the right way of doing those things, he was a fierce component. They had the best time challenging each other. When it was time for the penguin dancing, they sat next to each other in the front row, cheering as loud as they could.

It was only know that the carnival was packing up and they didn't know where to go that they didn't know what to say to each other again.

Neither of them wanted to go home so they went for a walk around town, finally resting when they reached a pond with benches around it. The bench was small, but big enough for them to not touch.

They walked in total silence the whole way, but they were more comfortable with each other than ever.

It was still light out and you could see the fish swimming around in the water. They looked so peaceful.

"Hey, Katara" Zuko asked.

"Yeah?" she replied, wondering what it was that he wanted to ask her.

", Do you really blame yourself for what happened to your father?"

She was cought off guard and didn't know what to answer. She ended up telling him that she did because she left him alone. She also told him about some of the nightmares that she's been having.

"I'm sorry."

He sounded really apologetic that he didn't know what she was going through.

"But ever since you told me a bit about your life last night, I couldn't stop wandering about the rest. I shouldn't have asked."

She told him that it was alright and she actually ment it.

She didn't know why but she felt okay telling him about her struggles and wanted to tell him more. Yes, it was an uncomfortable subject but she felt that she could trust him.

And before she could stop herself, she started telling him every detail that he didn't know before.

She shed a few tears and he wiped them away.

He asked if she also regretted not following Aang, not career wise and not about what happened, but if she still had feelings for him. He looked if he instantly regretted asking.

She answered anyway saying no, that she didn't think that it would ever work out or that they were ment to be.

He looked kind of relieved and she wondered what he was thinking...

When she was done telling him her story, she encouraged him to tell her a little about what happened to him after the war reasoning that it was only fair.

He told her about how hard it was being crowned king of thethe Fire Nation and learing to rule, how he had to banish his own sister, and how his life and become extremely difficult when Mai broke up with him. Apperently she just left in the middle of the night leaving a note that said that she was sorry but it was over.

They both comforted each other and must have looked really weird.

It was getting dark and they were both thinking to themselves when Katara's phone rang, it was Sokka. When she answered his voice sounded urgent, telling her to come to the hotel immediately, that he had news.

She jumped up and quickly informed Zuko while they were running to the hotel. She was sad that her time with Zuko was interrupted, but worried over what news Sokka had.


End file.
